Having just released my second asset package, I wanted to share a bit about it. You can find it online here. After creating the stylized weapon pack, I wanted to try my hand at a larger, cohesive project. As such, I began thinking about things that inspire me, games I would want to make, and things that we dont have yet in the asset store. Immediately, I thought about building blocks for things like Battle Royale games, or just general post apocalyptic environments. I was also very inspired by things like Junkertown in Overwatch, and I wanted to capture a similar stylized PBR look.

While working on the project, the new 3D Start Kit was released, which I immediately cracked open to see how well it could mesh with Fortnaught. The results were extremely exciting, and I will be posting some of that at a later time. I also took the time to adjust some assets to increase compatibility with the two projects.

Modeling

I'd like to speak a bit about the actual creation of Fortnaught, because this was another goal here. All modeling would occur in Blender (still a favorite of mine), and texturing would be done in Quixel. Nothing new for my own work, but ensuring that the models were efficient but still PBR compatible was something I was interested to see how it worked out.

Another important aspect of the modeling was the use of modularity. I needed to work quickly, since I knew a package like this was only useful if it provided enough elements to build without fear of looking too repetitive. As such, many of the wood planks were copies of others, some share UVs, and variations were then built in later on.

Texturing

The texturing process, as long as everything was unwrapped properly, was fairly straightforward. I have my recipe for stylized wood in the Quixel suite. Briefly, it consists of applying a basic wood texture, removing all albedo from it (this removes much of the realistic texturing, while retaining the shape of wood), applying a tan color followed by a darker brown gradient on top. Simple but effective, this would often get followed up with a layer of Machine paint in the appropriate color, and occasionally some dirt or rust.